Category Archives: Friends

The Archives: Edition Twenty-Eight

August 2, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

These pictures come from the following folder:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Pop Art

I want to make one thing clear, I’ve always hated Pop Art and Andy Warhol. Although fascinatingly, very few of these pictures could be considered pop art, but I want to make sure that nobody misconstrues this collection as any kind of tribute Andy Warhol.

Jill once loaned me a movie called Factory Girl. The movie is about Edie Sedgwick. She was one of Andy Warhol’s first “superstars” and one of the people he used and threw away most completely.

There is a scene in the movie that best sums up the way I feel about Andy Warhol. Edie and Andy are having dinner with her parents. Although Edie’s father is definitely not a hero in the movie and he most likely sexually abused her in real life, his character has a brilliant line about Andy Warhol.

He looks at Warhol and says:

“You’re really more of a printmaker than an artist aren’t you?”

What I originally thought about doing with some of these pictures was hanging them in the kitchen. My current kitchen doesn’t really possess much picture hanging space, so this idea is kind of kaput, but I wouldn’t hang such terrible pictures on my wall any way. Not when I need to hang up the sweet apron that Sara (masquerading as Jupiter) gave me recently.

I firmly believe that the Bennett family pickle relish recipe is the best pickle relish recipe in the world.

I found this phone booth in Mexico.

I’ve been fond of growing Marigolds for nearly a decade now.

My Giverny (Picture named after Monet’s garden)

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Project Universe

Brog Frog, Cousin Amy, Dawn, Formal Portrait, Night, Sara, Self-Portrait, Shawn Lockner, Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE Y2 #30 – NIGHT

August 1, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

I’ll just confess that my picture this week was not the intended picture. But I did what I could after I had some kind of memory card failure where I lost my original picture.

Here are the submissions for NIGHT:

Christopher D. Bennett

IMAGE LOST
Dawn Krause

Mike Vest A

Mike Vest B

Next week’s theme will be:

LEADING LINES

A look back at last year’s submissions.

LEADING LINES – 2010

I am going on vacation next week, so next Monday at noon the theme for next week will publish, but none of the pictures will be published until I return from my sabbatical. Unless you get your picture in by Friday.

Cousin Amy, Funk, Personal Photo Project, Sara, Still Life

Personal Photo Project of the Week #78

July 29, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

Soul Mending

This Personal Photo Project was to photograph around an Amish farm on my trip to Kalona with Sara, Cousin Amy and the Funk.

Here are a few more pictures from the farm.

Next week’s Personal Photo Project involves lilies.

Baseball/Softball, Becca, Bethany, Jen, Jill, Jim, Nate, Road Trip

Minnesota

July 27, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

Back in the middle of June I made a trip to Minnesota with Jim. There were several great moments on the trip, but I will just cover two of the events in this entry.

The first is a tale of when I went to see Super 8 with Jill. Since I’m slightly too lazy to re-write this small adventure, I’m just going to copy and paste from an email I sent Jen.

On Saturday, Jill and I went to see Super 8 at the Mall of America Theater. Why the Mall of America Theater? Because it was the closest theater to Eagan that Jill knew about.

As I was buying the tickets for the show, the woman at the box office asked me if I wanted the “Dbox seats”. I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but there was a sign on the box office that said something about VIP seats and that got you access to beer and wine. I assumed that is what “Dbox seats” were and we didn’t need access to beer and wine. So I told her that regular seats were fine.

The tickets were 6 bucks a piece, which I though was cheap considering that the last time we went to a movie, it was $10 a piece. But, I figured that maybe we got matinee prices since it was a Saturday and it was somewhat in the afternoon.

We were nearly late to the theater as the line for the concession stand was slow moving and going to the movie was kind of a late decision based on the fact that it was raining. So when we got to the theater most of the good seats were already taken. However, there were a couple of seats available in the back row. So we sat in the back row.

We hadn’t been situated for more than a few seconds when an usher approached us and asked to see our tickets. I handed them over and she said, “It would cost you an extra 8 bucks to sit there. You can sit in the blue seats.”

It was then that I noticed that we were sitting in a red seat. The last 8 rows of the theater were all red seats.

Most of the blue seats that were in the middle of the theater that weren’t smashed up against the screen were taken, so we took some side seat and watched the movie from a weird angle.

So here is the object lesson from this story. I will not be going to a movie at the Mall of America Theater again. A theater that has 1st and 2nd class seats.

The second event was going to Target Field to watch the Padres play. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the Padres play, so that was exciting. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Target Field

Bethany & Becca negotiating for a beer. Bethany was turned down because one of Minnesota’s Mickey Mouse Laws.

The coolest thing in Target Field

Target Field

More Target Field

Nate and Jim

If you look closely, you can see Nate, Becca, and Bethany in this picture. They are in the 2nd row from the top.

Another view of Target Field

If you look closely… Clue: Nate is wearing a yellow hat.

Venable

Maybin

Denorfia

Maybin Again

Meeting on the Mound

End of the Day for Moseley

Outfield Meeting

Adams

Some Twin

Next Wednesday’s random photo collection will be from my fence building project.

Jay, Photoshop

The Archives: Edition Twenty-Seven

July 26, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

This week’s pictures come from:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Photoshop

Okay, maybe my Photoshop skills have increased slightly. Although I still kind of like the picture of Jay screaming.

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Project Universe

Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE Y2 #29 – FRAMING

July 25, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

Only 2 pictures this week:

WEEK 29 - FRAMING - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT

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Christopher Bennett

Mike Vest

Next week’s theme:

NIGHT

That is a new theme for this year. Night photography can be the most difficult and most rewarding kind of photography. So get out at night and bring a tripod, or at least find a way to stabilize your camera. It also wouldn’t hurt to use your camera’s timer. Hopefully we get a few submissions for this interesting category.

Animals, Black & White, Cousin Amy, Flowers, Funk, Sara, Still Life

Kalona Road Trip

July 20, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

A few weeks back I went on a road trip with Sara, Cousin Amy, and the Funk to have lunch at an Amish woman’s house in Kalona. The trip was set up by the Funk who has ties to the Amish community in Kalona as she is formerly Amish.

I’ve really only known the Funk for a few months now, but she is truly one of the most fascinating human beings I’ve ever met. Not just because she is formerly Amish, but I can’t lie, that part fascinates me.

I really find the Amish community to be fascinating and to have somebody to ask question after question after question after question to is really cool for me.

The pictures of the Amish woman’s (Ruby Miller) house are being held back for Personal Photo Project #77, but here are a sampling of the other pictures we took on this incredible day.

Disclaimer: I go to Kalona about once or twice a year with my Mom. I never photograph the Amish while I’m there because I know that it is not something that they would enjoy (clearly not the right word). But on this trip I did take a couple of pictures of some Amish at the urging of the Funk. One of the pictures I took was of an Amish volleyball tournament. I really wish I would have been able to stop the car and enter the tournament. I have a history of dominating religious tournaments. A Pentecostal volleyball tournament here and a Mormon basketball tournament there. However, Amish volleyball tournament was not to be added to my list of life experiences.

Cheese from the Kalona Dairy

Kalona Dairy

Picture for The Story Project

Flower for Sale at the Bakery

The Funk in the Community Store

Clematis

Good Grass Fed Beef

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Sara in Stringtown

Another bonus of this trip was taking Sara to Sister’s Garden. I’ve always kind of viewed it as Sara’s mothership even though she had never been there before. Now that has been remedied.

Next week’s Wednesday random picture collection will be from a baseball game I attended in Minnesota.

Alexis, Anders, Brandon, Elainie, Faust, Jay, Jen, Johnathan, Logan, Teresa

The Archives: Edition Twenty-Six

July 19, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

This also seems to be a pretty random collection of photos. Some of these pictures were taken by Teresa.

These pictures come from:

Backup/Old My Pictures/New Photos

Sadly My Photoshop Skills Haven’t Improved

This is the 1st picture I ever had accepted to the State Fair.

This autographed picture was given to me by Steph. Simon Estes pulled it out of his trunk when she asked for it.

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Photoshop

Brog Frog, Geri, Shannon, Vest, WPC - Submissions

RWPE Y2 #28 – GAMES

July 18, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett

There were a few submissions for GAMES. Here they are:

Mike Vest

IMAGE LOST
Shannon Bardole

Geri Derner

Christopher D. Bennett

My picture may be confusing, but believe me, I only had time for one kind “game” this past week.

I’ve been to the Random Generator and it has spit out the following theme for this week:

FRAMING

Here is a look at last year’s submissions:

FRAMING

GENERAL HOUSEKEEPING NOTES

A few weeks ago, Shawn designed a logo for me. The logo looks something like this:

The logo is just one of the changes being made or have been made to the website. The following changes have been made:

The logo has been added to the header.
11 new header images have been created.
The weather forecast for Boone, Iowa has been added to the Calendar.
A miniature slideshow has been added to the sidebar of the About, Contact, Calendar, and Downloads pages.
I have (with the assistance and nudging of Shawn) created a Photography 139 Facebook page. In order to get my own URL, I have to have 25 people “Like” it. You can help me in accomplishing this task by going to virtually any page (except the Store and galleries) and clicking on the little “Like” link located in the sidebar.
I have added a Google+ link to virtually every page on the website. So if you are on Google+ and like a Journal entry and want to share it with other people, you only need to click on the +1 icon in the sidebar and it will appear in your Buzz section.
At the bottom of every single journal entry (individual page), there is a Tweet icon. If you really like a journal entry, you can click on this icon and it will Tweet a link to this page for you.
On the Home page there is a slideshow tentatively entitled “Pictures of the Month”. That title will change and it will eventually be a slideshow of my most recent photos.
Underneath my Twitter Feed in the Journal, I have added a link to make it easier for you to follow my numerous brilliant outbursts on Twitter by clicking the Follow icon.

These are changes that are coming down the pipe. Some are partially implemented. Some are not.

The Artistic Gallery and the Snapshots Gallery are being retired. They will still exist, but I will not be adding new images to them and they will not be accessible through the Navigation Bar at the top of the website. You will still be able to access them with a direct URL, at least for the foreseeable future. There just isn’t a reason to continue these galleries with the advent of the Store.
Pictures for Journal Entries will be housed in the Store, rather than in the galleries. The benefit is that the images will be larger and you will be able to click on an image and get even a larger image. This doesn’t cover all images. Some of the images that are published in The Archives just aren’t big enough to utilize this enhancement. The same goes for the Slice of Life pictures. But virtually all other images will benefit from this new feature when it is implemented fully.
Email subscription deliveries will be handled by the website directly. Currently, the website emails me and then I email everybody that has subscribed via email. Last time I attempted this, there were some bugs in the system. However, this is an advantage to you because you won’t have to wait for me to crawl out of bed (or in the case of this weekend when I will be out of state), you won’t have to wait for my return to get your high quality Photography 139 content. I should point out that I write my blogs up to 2 months in advance. So if I’m struck by lightning and die at some point in the near future and you keep getting emails from me. It is an act of technology, I’m not talking to you from the other side. Of course, if you want to subscribe via email, you just have to drop me a line at bennett@photography139.com.

Commercial, Formal Portrait, Photoshop, Shannon, Vest

Live United

July 13, 2011 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

I was contacted a few weeks back by Shannon about doing some photography for the United Way campaign. They had a pretty specific request that required a fair amount of Photoshop expertise.

Because I had not the time or the patience to complete the project I talked Mike Vest into doing the Photoshop part of the project while I did the photography. The two images below are the result.

Rebecca Anderson acted as the art director for this project.

Next week’s random Wednesday pictures will cover a recent trip to Kalona.